 Organizing elections in that situation was difficult due to the security situation, and to the fact that most men between 19 and 48 (if not physically deformed and did not have a profession vital for the supply of the military) were recruited into the Russian army, and stationed on the Romanian front (which saw action until December 1917), in Odessa and other Black Sea ports.Prior to 1917, Bessarabian intelligentsia was divided between noblemen, conservatives, democrats, and socialists.Vasile Stroescu, a rich but modest filantop boyar, managed to persuade all major factions to leave their internal fights and join together.